Papa John's Pizza

If I could give Papa John's a zero, I would. I received probably the worst service of my life here. I will never, ever, EVER eat at a Papa John's again. It is a well known fact in my circle of friends to never order from Papa John's or risk hearing "the story" again.

As stated in a previous review, I do a lot of work with children and adults with cognitive disabilities. When I was a student at the university, I worked with an older man with cerebral palsy. His speech was unintelligible and he used a computer (DynaVox) to talk. Every time I worked with him, we ordered for delivery from some various place around town, and he would pay (per my work agreement with the family). Since he paid for all the meals, and to encourage his independence, he ordered the food. Every single time, he ordered our food using his DynaVox and we never had a problem.

Why did we never have a problem? Because the DynaVox is easy to understand (has voice output) and because of something called the American's with Disabilities Act (ADA). ADA law states that businesses, employers, and public and private buildings must provide reasonable accommodations to patrons and employees. Remember that word reasonable as you read on, because I think it's key.

One day, we ordered from Papa John's. We dialed their number and I introduced myself and the man and told him that we were going to order pizza using an augmentative communication device (his DynaVox). The employee agrees and I put the phone near the speakers of the DynaVox. We order. I take over after the order is put in to confirm everything is well. The employee said he got none of it. I asked him if he wanted the man to repeat or if he needed further clarification from me.

The employee said things along the lines of-

-I don't understand why you're doing this
-I have other people who want to order and don't have time for this stuff (mind you it's 10:30 am on a tuesday)
-Why are you letting the "retard" talk when you're capable?

To which I responded and explained that since he was paying for the pizzas he was ordering the pizzas. I again repeated that I could clarify. I got the same comments over again so I asked to talk to a manager. The manager actually DEFENDED his employee. So I explained to the manager about ADA law and he promptly hung up on me.

I called the regional manager and explained the situation. He of course, tried to make it better by offering a free pizza. I would never have accepted the pizza, but the man I work with loves free food and frankly it's about him. If he wants the coupon, we'll take the coupon. The manager also explained that we should not be discouraged from using the DynaVox to order and his employees would gladly take our order using it.

So we order again on a different day. Same guy answers the phone. I explain the back story. He cuts me off and says, "I thought we've been through this before?" Oh, I was so mad. Yelpers, I can't even describe my rage. This is where I lost it and raised my voice (I actually didn't yell and am super proud of myself) and reminded him of ADA law and informed him that we would not hesitate to talk to his regional manager again or get outside agencies involved.

Seriously yelpers, this happened 2 years ago and it still makes my blood boil. It was a disgusting abuse of civil rights that no one really cared about. All we wanted was a REASONABLE (there's that word again!) accommodation- for them to take the man's order via his DynaVox and we were refused. They broke the law.

Never eat at Papa John's.

I love Papa Johns, I really do.  At one point I was eating it at least once a week.  Well... I don't like this Papa John's.  It's location blows, the pizza's generally a little underdone and the storefront is really cramped and messy looking.

I still eat from this one, but it's not the best Papa John's I've had.  I can't dissuade you from ordering from here, but if you want top notch Papa John's, make the extra effort to head down Veteran's.